How often the experience of a life transformed by Christ leads to the desire to share that new life with others. Here's a fascinating story from my town:

From 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays, 10 or so ministry volunteers work in shifts of three behind a stand to spread Christ’s message outside the courthouse. An office will open Tuesday at 102 S. Tejon St., Suite 1100, about two blocks north of the courthouse, where volunteers will witness to people in a more relaxed environment.

A Springs attorney for 36 years, Makepeace has represented clients involved in domestic violence, rape, murder, shoplifting, DUI, burglary and a host of other crimes. He is known for witnessing to his clients, and he encourages other attorneys to do the same. Courtside Ministries is an outgrowth of his unrelenting desire to witness.

Makepeace became a born-again Christian in 1999. Till that point, he was sad and confused, he writes in a law magazine article published several years ago. His marriage was crumbling and he was a workaholic. “I was depressed all the time and could not understand or explain my predicament,” Makepeace writes.

“One evening during this tumultuous time, I remember watching a Billy Graham Crusade and hearing him say, ‘God loves you,’” Makepeace writes. “I could not get my mind around such a thought. Then, several weeks later, I recall picking up a book about the life story of Mother Teresa and reading about her life ‘abandoned to God.’ Such a thought began to intrigue me. Unbeknownst to me, God was pursuing me, and I had begun a journey toward a more rewarding spirit-filled life.”

I'm not surprised anymore when I read about people whose conversion was precipitated by both evangelical and Catholic influences. And what influence could be more quintessentially evangelical than that of Billy Graham and more truly Catholic than that of Mother Teresa? But both, in their own ways, radiated Christ.

How many lives have changed because people met Christ through the testimony of that man and that woman? In my town. In your town. And what unexpected ripples of grace reach many others because of those changed lives?